ABSTRACT
The dissatisfaction felt by many Western governments with the performance of their public schooling system towards the end of the last century partly reflected a concern that existing and future economic and social challenges were not being adequately responded to by that system. From the 1970s it was believed in much of Europe and North America that slowdowns in economic growth and losses in international competitiveness were partly the result of failures in the schooling system (Adnett 1997). Similarly, the growth in labour market inequality, predominantly wage inequality in the US and employment inequality in Europe, was partly attributed to a schooling system that was failing those towards the bottom end of the ability range. In this chapter we explore the broader economic and social context of schooling systems in developed countries. The underlying motivation for this review rests upon two issues. First, to investigate the extent to which changes in the economic and social environment were responsible for the introduction of market-based reforms of state schooling. Second, to identify those environmental factors that may influence the outcome of those reforms.
